Happy Days Are Here Again
by Stor-E-Phool
Summary: Sweet as a kitten; Rugged as a Knight... Soft and gentle; Brash and brawny...Girly black locks; stubborn red hair. Why can't Junior get his girls straight? A simple choice can change a guy's life forever.
1. Pity

_**Happy Days Are Here Again**_

**By: Stor-E-Phool**

The smithy was hot as the blonde drove the final iron stake into the water for cooling. He had already ushered pig away from the wheel to let the coals begin to simmer down, but the heat was still as blistering as before. He sighed and placed the still-warm finished stake next to the others in the pile, looking up as he heard his name being called from across the training ground.

"Hey, Smithy!" the ugly red-head smiled at him, shouldering a sparring sword and laughing with confidence. He tried not to notice her imperfect eyebrows and lopsided left eye.

"Oh. Hey, Jane." He replied, and looked away, hiding his repulsion by reordering his already tidy stack of stakes, "What did you need?"

"Oh, nothing." she laughed with a snort, and gestured toward the gardens, "Rake asked if I could let you know the wheelbarrow's wheel just collapsed again."

Smithy rolled his eyes and glanced at the last wheel in the corner of the smithy. "Its all that dung he pushes around the castle. It's really dense."

A look of shock passed over Jane's features. "Don't call Rake stupid!" She said, shaking a finger at him, causing Smithy to notice how dirty and chipped her unpolished nails were. He subtly leaned away from the wagging digit to avoid retching.

"I...I'm not." He said, "I said that the dung is dense. It puts too much stress on the wheel."

"Oh!" Jane's back straightened and the exuberant grin returned. At the impatient, gruff call of a certain fellow-trainee, she galloped away, making the blacksmith relax a little. He grabbed the last wheel from the corner and angled himself for the next section of the castle, narrowly avoiding a collision with the prince and princess playing tag as he passed under a narrow arch.

"Ah, there you are, Smithy!" Rake called, standing behind a sizable tomato plant and waving him over. Rake's clothes were permanently stained with splotches of dirt, and his tanned face was red and peeling from recent sunburn. Smithy smiled at him. "I've been waiting for an eternity! I was barely a quarter of the way finished fertilizing the vegetables when, CRACK! The wheel collapsed! I've been having to spread it by hand this whole time!"

Smithy cringed at the sight of his clumbsy friend's filth-coated hands, and met his eyes. "No problem, Rake. Where's the barrow?" The gardener motioned toward the overturned barrow at the side of the garden, very near to the wizard's tower. Smithy hoisted the wheel onto his shoulder, arm threaded through a gap in the stablizers, axle under his arm. He dreaded the odor about to offend his nose and ruin his whole day, but supposed it had to be done.

Rake lifted a shovel from the garden soil and placed it in a loop of his apron. He looked back to Smithy. "Oh, and when you're done, Pepper said we're stopping for lunch."

Smithy nodded and turned back to the barrow, stomach doing flip-flops in his gut. Lunch, Dinner and Breakfast. His favorite parts of the day! He smiled to himself and got to work on switching the damaged wheel for the new one. As he worked, his belly continued to leap and dance; whether with love or with hunger he didn't know.

Finally, he replace a final screw and stood, job finished, and ran for the eating table, old wheel in hand. As he neared, the aroma of baked apples filled his nose and he moaned as his stomach growled. A subtle, more heavy smell also hung in the air, though he couldn't place a finger on it.

"Pepper?" He asked as he came to an open window of the kitchen near to the table. The pretty, ebony-haired cook poked her head out, wide brown eyes raised to meet his in surprise.

"Oh! Good morning, Smithy! Well, I guess it's noon now, of course, but good, none-the-less!" She was speaking quickly, a blush upon her cheeks. Smithy smiled openly at her, a blush adorning his cheeks, too. He prayed she thought it was due to a sunburn, or maybe even the forges.

"What are you cooking, Pepp?" He asked, walking toward the kitchen entrance, speaking loudly so she could still hear.

"You'll see when it's time to eat, peeper!" she replied as he came down the stairs. He crossed over to the table where she was. Smiling, he reached for a still-smoking apple, only to get smacked away. Pepper pouted sternly. "No! Not with those dirty hands!"

He pouted, but turned to the washing basin anyway. "You spoil all the fun."

"I try!" She laughed, and he smiled again as he scrubbed the grease and dirt from his palms and nails. He dried his hands on a clean towel and turned to her, grinning.

"What can I do to help, Pepp?" He asked, wiggling his now squeaky-clean digits in the air. She chuckled and began mashing potatoes in a large wooden bowl with salt and pepper.

"Nothing. I just have these to finish, then its all ready!" Smithy moved to the table, trailing his still-damp finger in a layer of flour dust on it.

"I can do that for you," He commented, rubbing the flour collected from the table between his finger and his thumb. He glanced at her, and smiled. She had her eyes closed, long black braid bouncing with every motion. Her apron was covered in flour, and a little was even on her face. He supposed she had been making either bread or cake earlier in the morning. Her eyes opened, then widened as she realized he had been looking at her. He chuckled and closed his hands around her bowl and mashing spoon, lifting it into his arms and began working the potatoes.

"Hey! Give that back, Smithy!" She said in earnest, trying to grab at it, but he pulled away.

"I told you I'd do it for you!" he laughed. Pepper crossed her arms and pouted.

"I didn't ask you to."

"You don't have to ask me to do nice things for you, you know." He grinned, pleased as he realized she was taken aback by the comment. It was silent for a moment as Smithy stirred the potatoes, making them into a creamy mixture, the odor filling the air. He took in the smell, and recognized it as the aroma that he could not identify earlier. Smiling, he set it down next to the apples, and patted his hands clean from any dried mashed potatoes still clinging to them. He turned to Pepper. "Lunch is ready: shall we finally serve our famished friends?"

She stood for a moment there, her hands clasped behind her back, shifting from foot to foot. "Uh, Smithy..."She glanced up at him. "I've, uh, got someone else, remember?"

Smithy's smile dropped, and his heart rose in his throat. "N-no, I know that." He looked down at his boots, ashamed of the tears he, and indeed she, heard in his voice. Her eyes melted from nervous to compassionate.

"Oh, I thought our conversation that night had cleared all of this up..." Her voice held pity.

_'Pity...'_

He looked away from her. "O-on second thought, Pepper, I don't think I'm hungry." There she went. Opening old wounds. Salting them with pity-filled words. _Pity._ She pitied him. She didn't look up to him as a provider. As a man. She looked at him...with _pity_. "I-I'll just be at the forge with Pig. See you." He walked away, wishing with his soul that he wasn't so weak. That he could hold his ground in face of her. Wishing that for once, she looked at him with love, or even dependence... anything but _pity_.

"Oh, Smithy! Hey!" He cringed.

"Hey, Jane." He put on a happy face and waved a little as the ugly redhead bounded toward him. Great. Just another thing to spoil his mood.

"Aren't you going to lunch?"

"I'm not hungry. I'm feeling a little... under the weather, actually." He coughed into his hand a little to confirm his lie to be the truth. Her freckled, peeling, sunburned face contorted into a frown.

"D...did something happen with Pepper?" Lovely. The manliest woman on earth could read him like a book. Just lovely.

"Why don't you go somewhere and burn?" He asked, cursing as he realized the bite in the comment had been dulled by a crack in his voice. He turned his face away from her and ran for the saftey of his forges, yearning for some solace.

_**A/N: So how do you like Smithy's inner thoughts? :)**_

**_Okay, first of all, I'd like readers to know that this is not at all how I picture Smithy. At all. Smithy is really strong, gallant, loving, caring, compassionate, utterly friendly to all except those who threaten his lovely Jane. Plus, in reality, I don't think our Jethro would EVER go for Pepper. :) I just thought it would be interesting to write him like this. Like, as if his inner thoughts about Jane are mean-spirited and maybe even a little germophobic. Tell me what needs to improve! Too many smiles? grins? WHAT BOTHERS YOU ABOUT MY WRITING????!!!!!! Lol just click that little clicky thing and critisize me already! Gee wilikers!_**


	2. Feining Pleasures

_**A/N: You know, sometimes things don't always go the way you'd expect. You want something to happen, but you are startlingly slapped into awareness that it will never happen. Like me, giving my father a beautiful flower when I was young. I expected a loving "aww, thanks, hun!" But I was rejected. This is one of my memories:**_

_**Childhood memories**_

_**I remember climbing the front yard magnolia tree and sitting on a particular branch, for arms resting on a thinner branch about a foot above my perch. We called these two branches "the desk", and always fought over who got to sit there. I remember picking the thick-pedaled magnolia flowers and bringing them inside to give to daddy, and then being shooed out by mom, being yelled at that "daddy is allergic to that! It makes him sick." Never again did I bring my dad flowers from the magnolia tree. Only dandelions from then on.**_

_**Readers, my question to you is this: What is one of your brightest, most prominent memories from your childhood? What is the flavor that experience has left on your person? I wonder.**_

_**On with the story!**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Jane and the Dragon. Are you TRYING to make me cry? Lol. I love Jethy.**_

The summer's rays beat down on Jane's neck, doubtlessly leaving a patch of fresh orange freckles sprinkled across her pale skin. She sighed, shoulders sinking down low over her knees, hair making a curtain around her face. Love was not fun. Love was fiercer than a lionand merciless as the blade hanging from her hip.

And its possibilities were wonderful.

Jane took in a deep breath and righted herself from her mourning position, feeling her back crackle with the effort. She stretched her legs and wiped the tears from her cheeks. Something was bothering her love, and by her Knight's honor, she would be the one to make him feel better. Whether it involved his pathetic pining after perfect Pepper or not.

Jane climbed down from the roof atop her tower, scampering down a path of vines and jutting bricks and ledges to reach the bottom of the ivory structure. She missed Dragon, how he would merely handle her like a doll, plucking her up from one part of the castle and speedily delivering her to another. She wished he hadn't gone off in search of Sarkany, but at the same time she knew it was his destiny to revive Dragonkind, so she tried not to complain much.

The red head finally lowered herself to the ground of the training court, squinting at the, now, cold, empty smithy. She imagined how her friend must feel, trying not to feel the love he felt for one who could never love him back. Jane actually knew the feeling quite well, seeing as it was how she had been feeling for a very long time. She briefly spotted the movement of some hay in the stables. Hay... or a head of hair?

Jane slipped off her clanking metal boots and padded quietly toward the horses, diving from barrel to barrel to stay out of site. She wanted to surprise him...

...

Smithy could hear the shift of skin on hard sand, a sound much like a rattlers hiss, but less harsh and more clumbsy. He nearly sighed aloud. Someone was checking up on him. Why couldn't it just register to everyone to leave him alone?

"Hi, Smithy." Jane said, her gravelly, shout-worn voice grating on his ears. Why couldn't she be more like Pepper? Pepper had a soft, sing-song voice fit to join chorus with the angels.

"Hi... Jane." He replied, not yet ready to let the sulk sift from his voice.

"I brought you an apple." She pulled a bruised, green piece of fruit from her satchel and tossed it to him. He caught it, but nearly gagged. It was soft, gushy to the touch... and, ugh, it smelled of a mild vinegar. He tossed it back.

"That's rotten, Jane. How long has it been in there?" He asked, nose scrunched in discust. He wiped his hand off on his briches. Jane looked down at him with raised brows and playful smile.

"About three weeks. I thought you might like it back, since I've apparently been ordered to go burn somewhere." Smithy was reminded of the apple he had tossed to her at the Easter Festival nearly a month ago. Another look of disdain coated his features and he rubbed his temples.

"You... you _still _have that."

She nodded her head and sat down next to him where he was propped against the wooden stable doors. Her eyes were lit like the sun in the sky, hands seeming to shake like leaves. It occurred to Smithy that her smile lingered too long.

"Why do you do that, Jane?" He asked, looking away from her. Her smile dropped for a moment, but then reappeared.

"Do what, Smithy?"

"Fake being happy. We all know you're not."

Jane paused, quivering hands folded in her lap, crimson golden hair bouncing with every movement of her head, freckles seeming to accentuate her features for a moment in the light streaming in from the open stable door. She thought deeply for a moment, then looked at him with a deep sadness on her brow. "I can't be happy until the ones I love... love me back, I think." Smithy rolled his eyes and stood, trying not to laugh. How foolish was that? People can't love you back. If it had never happened for him, it certainly could never happen for a hill-billy like _her._

"Jane, you are so... stupid... if you think that Dragon is going to choose _you _over Sarkany? He's halfway across Hungary by now, searching for her, leaving you completely forgotten. How crook-nosed can you be? He'll never love you."

More silence. The blonde blacksmith nearly stomped away again, the quiet stretched for so long. Finally, Jane opened her mouth, eyes liquid emeralds as they filled with tears.

"Dragon _already_ loves me, Smithy. When I say that the person I love doesn't love me back..." Her words were barely audible, and Smithy strainedd to hear as she spoke the rest of her sentence, "...I... I meant you..." His eyebrows shot up his forehead and Jane bolted out of the stables, face as red as her hair.

Smithy only stood there, arms like jelly, in complete and utter shock.

_**A/N:So. Bing Translations is so awesome. I just had a full-blown conversation in Dutch, and learned an impressive amount about the language by merely experimenting with the program. How fascinating! :D The wonders of technology!**_

**_Hey, reviewers, It would be awesome if you told me your delicious memories as mentioned above. :) My brain food for the week? FEED ME MEMORIES! :)_**


	3. Mercy

**_Happy Days Are Here Again_**

**Stor-E-Phool**

**A/N: Hello again, Readers! Welcome to the third chapter of HDAHA. Pull up a chair and sip both your tea and the story into your being! :)**

**I have had comments saying that I must sincerely hate Jane and Smithy and that everyone is very severly out of character. =_=; **

**Let me explain. I do change the characters in the show. I breathe a little of my life into them, get into their characters, and shine some originality into them. In my other Jane and the Dragon story, I change some of the characters due to time and events gone past... In HDAHA, I am changing them for a reason, too. I tried to write Smithy as he is in the show... somber, sweet, mellow. Profoundly noble... However, viewing the presentation I had made, I decided to give him a quirk... Being a tad discusted by his future sweetheart, precisely BECAUSE it is so out of character! I thought, "What if...?" :) ****This, in turn, made him more interesting to write... and I daresay gives the story some fuel to feed on. **

**Now. Why do I describe Jane as if she were discusting and as though I hate her? Good point. I'd request that you pay a bunch of attention to that little fact. It may give you some insight to Smithy's inner workings as the story progresses!^_^ I am blessed with intelligent reviewers!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Not even a house. Or a job. =_=;**

"'So long, sad times! Go long bad times; we are rid of you at last!'" sang Jester, voice high and merry as he strummed his guitar. "'Howdy, gay times! Cloudy gray times, you are now a thing of the past!'"

Smithy looked away from the grinning jester, and began hammering out the head of a spear, for a moment tempted to threaten to throw it in his friend's direction.

"Come on, Jethro, old pal, sing it with me! 'Happy days are here again! The skies above are clear again, so let's sing a song of cheer again; happy days are here again!'"

Smithy glanced up absently, then looked back down, thinking about Jane. He thought about all the little details of the other day, wishing he had caught on sooner. She liked him, and he had been awful to her. "And just what, exactly..." Smithy beat his hammer angrily against the hot metal and looked up at the jokester, "...is so happy about today?"

Jester smiled and leaned back against the stone wall behind him. He sighed like a dog relaxing after a walk. "Love, Smithy. Love."

Smithy rolled his eyes and made a disbelieving sound. Jester sat up with excitement, the sun reflected in his eyes resembling the fire which must have been raging in his heart that moment. "She is wonderful, I'm telling you. An angel from heaven, a flower among thorns!"

"And who is this that you are so enamoured with, hmm? I haven't seen you this fired up since that time you and Dragon played tag last month..."

"Its Lucretia!" Jester exclaimed, nearly leaping from excitement. He began to pluck a tune on his harp. Smithy stood dumbfounded.

"The... uh, the nobleman's daughter...? I thought she and Gunther..."

Jester shook his head. "She hates him. Can't stand him. I mean, who could? That brute. Really, Smithy." Jester's eyes glazed over and began to hum absentmindedly. Smithy began to hammer again.

Lucretia. He had fallen for a noble. He, an orphaned gypsy, thought he had a chance with a noblewoman. The Fool!

Still, he thought as he rested on his working stool, placing his cheek in his gloved hand, everyone seemed to have someone. Pepper had Rake, Dragon had Sarkany, Jester and Gunther were apparantly battling it out for this Lucretia woman... who did _he _have?

"Hi, Smithy." Said a demure voice to his right, and his head shot up like a cannonball being fired. Before him stood a woman. A beautiful woman; her eyes all a glimmer, her hair braided back, her cheeks paled with powder, her body clothed in a deep green dress. A _dress_. She tucked a stray crimson bang away from her face, revealing a light pink blush on her cheeks. Smithy, standing and moving toward the vision of femininity and beauty, grasped her chin tenderly and brought his body close to hers He drew her soft parted lips to his hungry mouth and...

"Smithy!"

The snoozing blonde jerked awake, bright red indents appearing on his cheek from his work glove. The rugged, dirt-smudged face of Jane smiled at him. "Hello, sleepy-head," she said.

"Jane..." Smithy croaked, cheeks turning red. He leaped from his chair awkwardly and moved away from the redhead. She continued to smile. "C-can I help you with something?"

Jane straightened her dirt-coated knight's tunic and picked some invisible lint from her arm. "I was wondering if you'd come with me for a minute." For a moment Smithy's thoughts shifted to his dream. Did he really want to be alone with her? What would he do if... if...

"I don't know, Jane." He said, voice guarded. The young knight put her hands on her hips.

"Oh, come on, Smithy. Nothing has changed about me. We're still just friends..." She brought a calloused finger to her lips and stared at him quizzically. "...right?"

Smithy nodded a little too enthusiastically. "Y-yes. Of course we're just friends. Of course."

...  
Smithy's hair seemed like liquid gold, how it glittered in the sunlight as they walked down the rocky road. Gathering mushrooms was a silly excuse to borrow his time, she knew, but she couldn't help but want to be alone with him. What if his hand brushed hers as they walked? Would he look at her with those innocent blue eyes?

"Here, Jane. I see some." He pointed a little down the path, and she looked. A miniature mushroom orchard rested at the base of an oak tree, all brown and taupe, looking surprisingly edible. She nearly sighed in dissappointment, for she had been hoping it would take longer. That she could spend more time with him.

Jane slumped toward the mushrooms and began plucking them from their plot of dirt and placing them in the bucket they had brought along. Smithy crouched beside her and did the same, his hair falling over his crystalline eyes. Jane's stomach twisted with anxiety. He was so handsome. How could she even hope for her feelings to be reciprocated? He couldn't love someone like her: with her ugly, tangled tresses and freckle-speckled face. How could she steal his time away like this? Time he could have spent with the girl he really liked... Pepper.

Pepper. Perfect, feminine, perfumed Pepper. Jane sighed with dispair and bitterness. If she were more like Pepper... would Smithy like Jane instead?

"Jane, I think if we pick any more, we'll have to have mushrooms for about a week." Smithy laughed, breaking through her thoughts. Jane glanced at the bucket and laughed, too. Not only had they filled it, but mushrooms were spilling over the brim and onto the ground.

"Well, Pepper will be happy, don't you think?" Jane grinned, tucking a bang behind her ear and laughing some more, but she frowned as Smithy's face froze and his smile slacked a little.

"Nothing makes her happier than a delivery of vegetables, true." He shook his head. Jane waited for a moment, then Smithy raised his gaze to hers. "Jane... about how I've been acting...it's just that-"

"-She broke your heart?" Jane finished, lifting herself to her feet. Smithy stared up at her. "I know how you feel, if its any consolation." She cracked a small smile and held her hand out to Smithy. The blacksmith took it, and she lifted him to his feet. For a moment, they were still, staring into one another's eyes, forearm to forearm.

"Jane... I'm sorry. And..." His eyes hardened in determination, "...I want to make it up to you." Jane's stomach did a summersault, and she could hear her heart beating in her ears. Was his face closing in, or was the heart fooling the mind? If she was wrong... she would make a fool of herself and any hope for his lips would be lost in a single moment. But if she was right...

"Smithy..." the young squire whispered, brows pinched with want, "K-kiss m..." Suddenly, his skin brushed her lips, and she closed her eyes, hoping she wasn't dreaming yet again. His lips were soft, warm and dry, and she prayed he wasn't being stabbed by her chapped lips. The instant her dream began to come together, it seemed, it began to unravel, for only an instant later, she was alone with only his warmth on her mouth and his scent lingering in the air in front of her.

...

_**A/N: Whoo! A smooch! What do you think? Too much fluff? Too little? OOC? WHAT NEEDS FIXING AND ADJUSTING? I am at the mercy and grace of your fingertips. Be sure to be soft in your praise and harsh in your critique! The quality of this story hinges upon it!**_

Altogether shout it now  
There's no one  
Who can doubt it now  
So let's tell the world about it now  
Happy days are here again

Your cares and troubles are gone  
There'll be no more from now on  
From now on ...

Happy days are here again  
The skies above are clear again  
So, Let's sing a song of cheer again

Happy times  
Happy nights  
Happy days  
Are here again!


End file.
